The Hangover

Before I get into how my experience was, let me just tell you what I woke up to the morning after Dublin's St. Patrick's day parade... 

I got up at about ten, and got ready to just go out and roam around the city, take some pictures.  Took an extra apartment key, and this is what I encountered when I walked out the door into the hall...

First of all, the hallway reeked of weed. As I entered the stair well, I was hit full in the face with the stench of piss (this is a pretty nice place to live mind you).  Okay, pee I could handle, not exactly a rare phenomenon in college dorms.

Then there was the large Asian man curled up on the floor of the second flight.

Ookay, just step around, try not to wake him up.

Then there was the shattered window of the second foyer. 

Apparently the drunkard had only enough patience to use his key for the first set of doors.

Outside the building, everything seemed normal.  I can only imagine the wreckage that laid within other buildings...

That was the result of other's St. Patty's Day, not mine.

My day started after a grocery trip to Tesco, when Leonardo and I headed out for the parade around 11.  (on a side note, Leonardo thought his camera bag was green, I will post a picture to see if you agree) It didn't start till noon, but as neither of us had been in Dublin for St. Patty's, we figured it would be ample time to get a good spot.

Wrong. 

It wouldn't have been do bad if we'd have stuck to the first spot we saw.  That was only one row of people deep from the parade. But nooo we had to look for somewhere better.  In the meantime, I got my face painted, and he took some pictures.  We ended up in a spot about four people deep from the street.  I could see bits and pieces of most of the parade depending on whether the woman in front of me kept her large green hat on or not (just going to point this out, if no one had had on a ridiculously large green hat, everyone could have seen better). I caught on long after the parade had started that each sort of group had a different theme/story to tell. We left the parade early, and went for fish and chips and a Guinness. 

People. Everywhere. Green hats. Orange beards. Shamrocks. Noisemakers.  Girls wearing flags as dresses. You name it.

From what I could hear. A large majority were American, but you could hear just about any langage if you listened long enough.  Not a whole lot of Irish accents like one would expect.  After the fish and chips, and the BEST Guinness I've ever had (honestly, Guinness drinkers that have never had one in Dublin have no idea what they are missing) we decided to head back for a nap, so that we would be rested for round two. 

One glorious nap later, we headed to the Porter House, which must have been the only pub in Dublin that did not have Guinness on tap.  Rightly so since they had their own brewery with good (not Guinness good) dark brews on tap.

This bar was amazing.  It consisted of three floors with a hole running through each floor, creating balconies of sorts.  There were bars on each floor, with a live Irish band playing on a platform on the second floor, sort of floating above the first floor.  Amazing.  Three bandmembers. One bagpipe. One penny whistle. One guitar. And one guy with metal whisks on drums.

When it was my turn to buy the next round of beers, I happened upon a group of Americans from Oregon.  The one brother was teaching English in Madrid, and so the other brother and his wife were just coming to party.  They insisted that I put my beers on their tab (despite the fact that the second beer was for a male not in the vicinity).  And of course we got into the topic of couchsurfing.

The older brother, Justin, thought that I shouldn't even need to be on a website, that girls like his wife and I could just find random people to let us stay with.  I quickly pointed out that this completely removes the element of safety that couchsurfing has built into it.  (I promise to fill in the tab above marked Couchsurfing Concept). If I were to stay with a completely random stranger, I would have no idea if he really was who he said he was.  I would have no idea how he has treated house guests in the past, particularly the female ones.   The wife commented how brave I was to do this on my own.  It isn't about being brave.  I had no other option (but that is a subject for another one of those above tabs that I haven't filled out)

Eventually the group of Americans met Leonardo, and he and the younger brother sped off into a Spanish conversation.  Which to me was rather ironic, as it wasn't the first language of either.  Soon their group departed for another bar, and Leonard and I decided to head home as well.

I will have you note, that the scenario I first described, the Piss, the Asian, and the Broken Glass (sounds like a C. S. Lewis novel...) did not exist when we turned in around 1am. I am actually thankful we missed it, and that our night wasn't as near as eventful.

Oíche mhaith Dublin
Tegs